The Witches of the Drowning Pool on Mackinac Island

A Brief History of Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island’s history stretches back thousands of years, with indigenous peoples such as the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Huron considering it a sacred place long before European settlers arrived. The island’s name itself, derived from the Ojibwe word “Michilimackinac,” means “big turtle,” referring to the island’s shape when viewed from above.

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The French established a fur trading post here in the 17th century, and the island later became a strategic military outpost during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. In the late 19th century, it became more of a summer colony and a tourist destination that it still is.

The Drowning Pool

One of the most macabre stories comes from the island’s Drowning Pool, a small, seemingly innocuous body of water near the shore between Mission Point and downtown Mackinac with an ominous sounding name. Stories keep coming back about this water, told among people before finally reaching online, sometimes going viral on storytimes.

There is plenty of lore around this little lagoon. Natives were known to have used this place for rites and rituals in the 18th century, a young native girl died there after her love for a British soldier went unrequited. According to legend she is still lingering by the pool, looking for her long lost love. Perhaps most telling is the legend that during the 1700s or early 1800s, seven women accused of witchcraft were drowned here.

A lot of these legends would be hard to prove, but surely a huge witch trial like this would have been talked about more. Just how much of the legends are true, and is this little pool of water really haunted?

The Legend of the Seven Witches in the Drowning Pool

Back then, Fort Mackinac was a huge deal and there were a lot of brothels popping up around them. Seven of these women were said to entice the soldiers at the fort, the fur traders, as well as other’s husbands and luring them back to their house.

One of the big tests they used on accused witches back then was the trial by water, or witch swimming test. They tied them up and threw them into the water to see if they floated or not. According to the saying, the water would repel any witches and make them float, as an direct intervention of God to show they were guilty. There are also those tying the connection water has with Jesus and his baptism and rejecting the witches from the water. If the accused sank, they were innocent. In both cases it could be a sure way to die.

*Indicium Aquae*: Although not as often used as popular media will have you to believe, there were actual cases were the Trial by Water or indicium aquae’, was used to find witches. James I of England, stated in his writing in the Daemonologie (1597) “that God hath appointed … that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosome, that have shaken off them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused the benefite thereof.” Here from: The ‘swimming’ of Mary Sutton (1615). The last time a suspected wizard being ‘swum’ by a mob, was in The Headingham witchcraft Case on March 15th 1864,

In this story, all women got rocks tied around their ankles and thrown into the lagoon. All seven women sank and drowned, proving their innocence, but taking their life.

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Ever since then, the Drowning Pool has been cursed by the lingering souls of the witches. Some say that they see their pale faces in the water under moonlight, or strange lights dancing over the water surface. In addition to the haunting of the Drowning Pool itself, the apparition and chilling feeling is also said to happen along or nearby Dennis O. Cawthorne Shoreline Trail.

What is the Truth Behind the Witch Trials?

But what is really true? The witch hunt was already pretty much over by the 1700s and such a big case like this would probably have garnered more sources than an abridged and vague story copy and pasted around the internet.

In regards to the brothel side to the story, there is not much evidence or documentation that there ever existed brothels on Mackinac Island, at least any official ones. Was there prostitution? Almost certainly. Were there seven women luring men back to their home for witchcraft? More unlikely.

But could the brothel mention just have been added as an afterthought to spruce the story up, or perhaps even the allegations? After all, not every retelling has this part with it.

Was the pond even there back then? In fact, some say the pool of water didn’t’ exist then, but is of a more modern origin. Formed in the 90s and perhaps even the 2000 when the people behind tourism and development on the island have molded the land into their liking. Like knocking down several buildings to make a golf course and bistros to cater to the tourist. This created deep ponds formed from the resort areas to the rocky shoreline of Lake Huron.

The Haunting of the Drowning Pool

Although there were no witches drowned there, could it be something else? What really is behind the stories of the sightings of the spirits lurking just below the surface of the Drowning Pool, only leaving us with the splashing sound of the deep murky water.